The authors describe a month-long unit on Afro-Latin@ identity in which third grade students began with a discussion of complex questions with which many historians, anthropologists, and scholars struggle to make sense. The goal of this month-long unit was to have students adopt the lens of cultural anthropologists as they explored the historical…

The accounts of two men who participated in several Spanish-led expeditions to the New World in the early 1500s document the frequent use of manual signs and gestures in the initial interactions between European explorers and the indigenous peoples of North America. Bernal Diaz del Castillo described the events that occurred during three…

Refutes the benevolence of Spanish slave law as purported by historians who relied on Frank Tannenbaum's "Slave and Citizen for the foundation of their conclusions; leniency toward slaves is held to have not been practiced, and to have been prescribed as a measure to undermine slave rebellions. (KG)

"The Last Supper" deals with slavery and social stratification in late eighteenth century Cuba. In this article, the film is described in artistic and historical terms, and is discussed in relation to the larger body of theory on Latin American slavery. (EB)

Presents the different moments and contents of the strategies of the evangelization process practiced by the Spanish during the conquest and colonization of Cuba, as well as possible reasons for its failure. States that the Indians were enslaved and directed through evangelism toward acculturation. (BT)

Compares post-emancipation societies in Haiti, Jamaica, Russia, the southern United States, Cuba, Brazil, and Zaria, relative to the acquisition of land by former slaves. Suggests that this information might provide a comparative perspective for instruction about the efforts of Blacks and Whites after abolition. (KO)

Provides historical information on Cuba. Addresses early colonization, the advent of plantation agriculture, the role and presence of the United States in the Caribbean and Cuba, and the social and economic developments in Cuba after the revolution in 1959 led by Fidel Castro. (CMK)

Illustrates the difficulties of adjusting to freedom through observations of former slave owners from the United States and Africa, letters written by former slaves to their former masters, and recollections of former slaves in Cuba and the southern United States several years after abolition. (KO)